They Say
by Jackie W
Summary: Being in Love vs Falling in Love


Title: "They Say"  
  
Author: Jackie W.   
  
Email: jackiesfic@aol.com  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Classification: SJ UST/Romance  
  
  
  
Season: Season 7, immediately after Death Knell  
  
Spoilers: Small ones through Death Knell. Larger ones for Chimera and Death Knell.  
  
Summary: Being in Love versus Falling in Love.   
  
Author's Notes: I had Muse diligently working on series when I made the mistake of letting her see the calendar, and she went all soft on me. There are two major leaps from Stargate 'fact' in this piece. First of all it's supposed to be about 6 weeks after Chimera, and it's Valentines Day. So just ignore the fact that Sam was running around Colorado Springs in January in a sundress (if it works for you, they were having the warmest January ever recorded in Colorado!) Second, this ignores any spoilers I have read for the rest of Season seven and Season eight. I'm going my own way here folks!   
  
Oh, and the song line is from a great Irving Berlin song… 'They Say It's Wonderful'   
  
  
  
*They say that falling in love is wonderful, It's wonderful, So they say*  
  
Sam snapped off the radio with a sigh. It was a lovely old love song, but she just wasn't in the mood. She had to acknowledge the truthfulness of the words though. Falling in love had been wonderful. For a whole month she had felt alive  
  
'Too bad falling in love hadn't led to being in love,' she mused.  
  
She'd been right when she told the Colonel that Pete could handle the truth about the Stargate. He'd displayed equal parts of disbelief and fascination as she told him the story. In the end fascination had won out, and things had continued to go well between them for several more weeks. He'd gone back to Denver to recuperate, but she'd visited him there twice. Then once he was mobile he'd come back to Colorado Springs to visit for the few days left of his time off. Sam had gone off world for one of the days, and although he had admitted to being worried about her he hadn't gotten obsessively protective or overly curious. Now that he knew what she did he was satisfied that she would tell him what she could.  
  
She could pinpoint the exact moment that it had fallen apart. She'd been explaining about the Tok'Ra, and her father, making sure that Pete understood the cover story that Mark had been given, when somehow she had ended up telling him about Jolinar. She had thought that his initial shock had been due to concern for her, but that was the moment that things started getting strange, and then strained between them. While he might have been able to accept the knowledge that there were other races out there, Pete had not been able to cope with having a relationship with someone who'd been possessed by one of the aliens.   
  
Sam had actually been the one to break things off between them, sending him back to Denver a day early but she had not missed the quickly masked look of relief on Pete's face. She stayed home and spent twenty-four hours alternately crying and bingeing on junk food, then she had headed back to the base and buried herself in the lab working on the prototype for the weapon to stop Anubis' super-soldiers.  
  
In retrospect, everything had worked out for the best. Her need to hide away from the world for a bit had resulted in the weapon being completed much faster than they had originally predicted. The solitude of working into the wee hours of the morning had also given her plenty of time to think. After a week she had come to a stunning realization. She wasn't broken-hearted over her break-up. She was a little sad, disappointed, and her ego was slightly bruised, but deep-down, as much as she had enjoyed Pete's company, she'd know he was not 'the one'. Truth be told it was the whole being in a relationship thing that she missed more than Pete. She'd enjoyed having a life and someone to share it with.   
  
But now she was home recuperating, alone again on Valentine's Day. She'd tried to ignore all of the candy and flowers at the store the night before when she'd stopped to get food. Unfortunately it hadn't escaped her attention that in the last thirty-seven years she had spent exactly two Februrary 14th's with a boyfriend, one in high school, and one with Jonas Hanson. Michael Brampton had bought her a box of candy at age seventeen. She hadn't even finished eating it when they broke up a week later. Jonas had proposed nine years ago today. That had lasted only slightly longer. So maybe it was better that she not be with anyone on this day anyway, she reflected grimly.  
  
'Snap out of it girl. You're used to being alone this time of year. What's gotten into you?' she thought.   
  
Just then she caught sight of herself in the hall mirror and grimaced as she automatically raised her hand to the slowly healing wound on her cheek. Instantly she was back at the Alpha site, too tired and hurt to even protest when the Colonel had wrapped an arm around her. She closed her eyes and remembered the feeling of being safe and cared for. She hadn't wanted to move.   
  
'Hell, you know what's gotten into you,' she scolded herself.  
  
Her time in the lab had led her to another realization, although that was not the correct term for it. It was something she had known for a long time, but hadn't faced up to until her hallucinations aboard the Prometheus had brought the issue to the surface again. Her feelings for Jack O'Neill needed to be resolved. Only now, when not confronted with a major concussion, and with 20/20 hindsight, she thought maybe she had been going about resolving them the wrong way. Especially after her time in the lab had allowed them to get close again.  
  
The Colonel had come to kick her out to get some sleep sometime that first week she'd been hiding out. That's when she'd let slip that she'd broken up with Pete. After that, he'd been a regular visitor, making sure she ate or just fiddling quietly while she calculated and ran simulations. Sometimes he worked on reports, claiming that it was too quiet in his office and that this way he could ask her to fill in any of the technical bits as he went. Occasionally she kicked him out when she got to the delicate parts of her testing, but mostly she was content with the company. Then one day as she was waiting for a simulation to complete and she found herself staring at him as he played on his GameBoy. Her mind wandered into the forbidden territory of analyzing her feelings for him. There was friendship, respect, trust, caring and even love, for sure. All of the same things she felt for Teal'c and Daniel. Once upon a time she knew there had been more. Was it still there?   
  
He'd looked up suddenly and after cocking an eyebrow at her, he had given her that darn sexy grin and gone back to his game. She'd almost slid off the stool as her limbs turned to jelly. Yep, definitely still had very inappropriate feelings for her CO. But did he still care 'more than he was supposed to'? Most of the time she thought he did, but he was a master at hiding his feelings, and sometimes they were buried so deeply that she was sure they were no longer there. Before she could even think about finding out one way or the other her father had come through the gate and offered Selmac's help to complete the weapon. Soon she had been off to the Alpha site, and all hell had broken loose.   
  
The doorbell ringing interrupted her musing. Looking outside she was surprised to see a deliveryman with roses. After signing for them and tipping the man Sam took the flowers into the kitchen and placed the three perfect pink buds into a vase of water. Then she picked up the card.  
  
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY FROM THE MEN WHO WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU  
  
-SG1  
  
Sam smiled as she leaned forward to breathe in the delicate smell of the blooms. It was so sweet of the guys to try to cheer her up. Then she frowned as she noted a couple of details. First there was the note. The handwriting was definitely the Colonel's which was surprising because the gesture seemed more like something Daniel would think of doing. Then there was the choice of flowers. Pink roses were her favorite, a fact which she had ever only mentioned to the Colonel once when they had been joking around. But mostly it was the wording of the note, which definitely indicated that the author knew about her break-up with Pete. Once again, the Colonel was the only one she'd told, although he could have mentioned it to Daniel and Teal'c. Even Janet was out of the loop on the events, although she had probably guessed that things weren't going well.  
  
She reread the note. Once again the words made her smile. She was sure it was true, just as she would always love each of them. But was there a hidden message in there just from Jack, or was she being foolish? A sudden brainstorm had her reaching for the phone and dialing up Daniel's lab. She knew he'd be there as SG7 had brought back photos of some temple ruins and the linguist had been deep in translation mode when she'd been released from the infirmary the day before.   
  
"Jackson," Daniel answered, seeming distracted.  
  
Sam could almost see him frowning over his books. "Daniel, it's Sam, I just wanted to say thanks," she told him, waiting with baited breath for her suspicion to be confirmed.  
  
"Uh, sure Sam," Daniel replied. Then after a pause, "For what?"  
  
"For the flowers Daniel. It was very sweet," she explained.  
  
There was another pause. "Uh, what flowers?" Daniel inquired.  
  
"Never mind Daniel. Go back to work," Sam assured him. With any luck he would forget the conversation the moment he hung up.   
  
She was right. She couldn't help the smile that was forming. She'd bet her bottom dollar Teal'c didn't have any idea that flowers had been sent either. Which meant the note was from the Colonel. Which meant…. What exactly? Maybe it was time to find out. An hour later she had a plan in place.  
  
When Cassie showed up later to pick up the shoes Sam had promised to lend the teen for her date later that night she was surprised by Sam's request.   
  
"Cass, could drop this off at the Colonel's on your way home and make sure he gets it?" Sam had asked innocently.  
  
"What is it?" Cassie demanded curiously, eyeing the envelope Sam had handed her.  
  
Sam studied the girl for a moment weighing just how much she wanted to give away.   
  
"It's my attempt to finally be happy," she cryptically explained, then smiled as she saw understanding dawn in the younger woman's eyes.  
  
"About time," was Cassie's only comment before she headed out to accomplish her mission.  
  
  
  
Jack had just settled down with a beer and flipped the TV on when the doorbell rang. He sighed and got back up again muttering as he pulled open the door.  
  
"Cass! What are you doing here?" he exclaimed, standing aside to let the teen in from the cold.  
  
"Just playing messenger. I can't stay, I have a date tonight. But *this*, " she emphasized handing him an envelope, "was a high priority delivery."  
  
"Must be to get you to postpone starting your primping. Thanks Cass. Have a good time tonight, but not *too* good," he warned.  
  
"Very subtle," she grinned giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Oh and Jack?" she paused on her way out. "Don't blow it."  
  
Jack raised an eyebrow at the cryptic comment. His curiosity was now peaked and he ripped open the envelope to find two pieces of paper inside. The first was red and he unfolded it find it was a heart, carefully creased in several places. The second was a handwritten note that he eagerly read.  
  
Jack –   
  
Thank you for the flowers from the bottom of my slightly bent (but definitely not broken) heart. Care to join me for steak and a beer at Montana's tonight?  
  
Call me,  
  
Sam  
  
He sat and stared at the note for a good five minutes. There was nothing in it that should have gotten his heart beating so quickly except for two words. *Jack* and *Sam*. Was he reading too much into the fact that after seven years she had finally dropped the formality? Just when he had convinced himself that he was overreacting, he remembered Cassie's parting shot. With a smile he reached for the phone.  
  
  
  
They arrived in separate cars and Sam planned that they would be leaving separately too. She had no intentions of moving their relationship into the forbidden zone that night. But she was determined that there were going to be some changes. She was relieved when the Colonel seemed to take his cues from her and they were able to relax and enjoy their meal. As they settled in over coffee Sam let the conversation lag.  
  
"Earth to Carter?" Jack quipped, then was surprised to see her look at him with apprehension in eyes. "What's up?" he inquired.  
  
A frown formed on her brow as she pondered how to proceed. Finally she blurted out a question. "When is the last time you can remember being truly happy?"  
  
A sarcastic comment was on the tip of his tongue but something in her body language caused him to pause. Still, there was no way he was going to get into that subject. Instead he turned the question around on her.  
  
"Aren't you happy, Sam?" he inquired. He really didn't expect the answer he got.  
  
"No, I'm not," she stated calmly. When he looked surprised she clarified. "Oh I have moments of happiness, and I guess you could say I'm content, or rather I'm not unhappy. But truly happy? No. It's been so long I can't even remember what that feels like," she admitted with a small shrug.  
  
"What about Pete?" Jack asked, somehow needing to know.   
  
"Definite moments of happiness," she confessed. "Which was nice because it's been months since I've even had that. But I think I knew pretty quickly that he was never going to make me really happy," she mused.  
  
"If it makes you feel better, I don't think any of the four of us on SG1 have been truly happy for the last seven years," he commiserated.  
  
"1979," she stated bluntly.   
  
"What's 1979?" Jack asked in confusion.  
  
"That's the last time I can remember being happy," Sam confessed.  
  
He didn't know what to say to that. His own happiness seemed to have existed in another lifetime, but in reality it had only been a little over nine years since he'd had it all.   
  
So he simply answered her original question. "1995."  
  
"That's just wrong, don't you think?" she queried.  
  
"Yes, I do," Jack agreed. "But real happiness is hard to find and even harder to hold onto," he pointed out.  
  
"But it's worth reaching for, isn't it?" she suggested hopefully.   
  
At this point he had no clue where this conversation was heading. He was starting to get a slightly panicky feeling that she was going to do something drastic, like leave the SGC. Still, he decided she deserved an honest answer.   
  
"Hell yeah," he acknowledged. Then after a pause where he considered his next words carefully he added, "The right guy is out there somewhere, Carter."  
  
She smiled at that, and he relaxed thinking he had at least said the right thing.   
  
"He might be. But more and more I'm becoming sure that what I need to be happy is right here," she commented, then giggled as his confused look. She took pity on him and explained by reaching over and taking his hand. "Right *here*," she emphasized. "If you still have feelings for me I'd like to give us a chance."  
  
To say Jack was shocked would have been an understatement. Of all the directions he'd thought this conversation as heading, he hadn't allowed himself to even hope for this outcome. But without warning he found the carefully erected walls he'd put up crumbling, and he felt a smile starting to form despite all the warnings his brain was trying to send out to him about ranks and chains of command. She'd put herself on the line to be honest, he could do no less.   
  
"I think I can officially say that I still *have feelings for you*," he confessed. "As a matter of fact I *know* that the only hope for me to find happiness again is sitting here right in front of me."  
  
Sam blinked back tears at his admission. Any uncertainty she'd had over this course of action fled. She knew she was doing the right thing.   
  
"Our situation might not change tomorrow or in the next few weeks," she acknowledged, "but Hammond has assured me several times in the last couple of months that my own command is not far off. He told be he just couldn't contemplate breaking up SG1 with the threat level from Anubis being so high. Maybe now that we have a weapon to use against his army he might be more open to it," she explained.  
  
"You deserve your own command, Carter. I've been telling him for a year that you are ready," Jack commented. "And in the mean time?"   
  
"There is absolutely nothing in the regs that says we can't keep on like we have been in the past couple of weeks. And dinner out with your 2IC on occasion is good for morale," Sam stated with a smile.  
  
"So I hang out in your lab and make sure you don't work yourself to death, and I keep you well fed. Any good CO would do no less," Jack agreed.  
  
"A few more team nights would give us more time together too," she suggested.   
  
"I'll insist on it," Jack nodded.   
  
"And I'll go talk to Hammond and let him know I'm ready to move on. I've been reluctant to break the status quo, but not any more," Sam stated.  
  
"Why now?" he had to ask.  
  
Sam thought about how to put it into words. "Because I'm ready to take control of my life and do whatever it takes to be happy again. I think I'd gotten so used to merely being content that I forgot what happy could be like. Pete helped me to remember. It's nice to have people that care for you, but falling in love, that's a wonderful feeling. And having someone to be in love with and to share my life with is something I know I want desperately," she explained.  
  
"And you're sure that the someone is me?" Jack asked.   
  
"After seven years of fighting my feelings for you I'd say it's a pretty good bet that nobody else will ever do," Sam assured him.  
  
"Just so you know what you're getting into. I'm not getting any younger, Carter, and I have a lot of baggage," he warned.  
  
"And I don't?" Sam replied raising an eyebrow. "Not even counting the stray memories and feelings Jolinar left behind, I can't find any two doctors who will agree on the long term physical effects that the blending will have. A couple of them don't even think I'll ever be able to have kids," she confided forcing herself to meet his eyes.   
  
He looked at her in surprise. "Do you want to have kids?" he asked, since it wasn't a topic they had ever discussed, even casually.  
  
"Another topic I've spent way too much time thinking about lately," she admitted, and a sudden vision of the young girl named Grace came to her mind. "Yeah, I do," she confessed. "What about you?"  
  
It was a good question. Up until now he wouldn't have been able to answer, never really sure if he could handle opening himself up to that experience a second time. But then he'd never thought he'd be able to fall in love again until he'd faced Sam across a force field and realized that he was a goner. Now he was able to envision a child with Sam's blond hair and his brown eyes and think of the possibility with more joy than trepidation.  
  
"With the right person, definitely," he replied.   
  
Sam could only beam in response to that. She suddenly realized that in thirty minutes they had revealed more of themselves to each other than they probably had in the last seven years. This had been a great plan. Now however it was time to end the evening and she was very reluctant to do so.   
  
"So," she fumbled.  
  
"So it looks like we at least have the same definition of being happy. Now we just have to work on a way to get there," Jack summarized with a grin.   
  
"I'll go talk to Hammond on Monday," Sam promised.  
  
"What are you going to tell him?" Jack queried.  
  
"I'm just going to sound him out on getting my own command. Much as I'd like to, I'm not going to tell him to hurry it up because I have plans to jump a certain Colonel as soon as the paperwork is through," She grinned.  
  
"You do?" Jack couldn't help but ask.  
  
"Big plans. Huge plans. Plans seven years in the making," she laughed.   
  
Jack nervously wondered if he'd survive these plans, but then cheerfully decided that he didn't really care.   
  
  
  
Her conversation with the General on Monday had left Sam discouraged. It had gone exactly the same as the other chats they'd had over the last few months. He was confident she was ready to command her own team, but she was needed on SG1 at the present time. Even when she had gently told him she thought it was time to move on, he had simply reiterated that for the time being he needed her to stay put. To make matters worse, Jack had been tied up in meetings all day on the status of moving the Beta site, and re-establishing a new Alpha site. So she hadn't been able to even discuss the situation with him.  
  
By 20:00 she was tired and depressed. Unable to concentrate on her work, she shut everything in her lab down and headed to the locker room to change and go home. Instead her feet found their way to the Gateroom which was quiet and dark. She could see the outline of the lone tech on duty in the Control Room above and kept to the back wall to remain out of his sight. There she slid down and sat knees to chest contemplating the huge ring in front of her, and weighing her options.   
  
She could request a transfer off of SG1, but besides looking bad on her record, she knew Hammond would never approve it without her giving a good reason. And she couldn't see herself telling him the truth. She could just resign her commission, but that would be giving up on everything she had worked so hard to achieve. Or would it? It would simply be her rank that would disappear, and she was certainly made up of more than a title. She would still be Sam Carter, Stargate expert, motorcycle rider, savior of the planet and friend to a close knit group of people that included two aliens. And she would have the chance to be so much more. Would giving up the title of Major lead her to a point where she could be happy in her personal life? If so, would it be a fair exchange? A year ago she would have said no. Now she thought maybe it would be.  
  
He found her there of course. After checking that she was still on base, he had tracked her down following a tip from Teal'c who knew she often went there to think.  
  
"Are we waiting for it to do anything special?" he asked as he slid down to sit next to her.   
  
"No, Sir," she smiled absently.  
  
"If you're working on some super complicated calculation I don't want to know. If it's anything else, care to share what's making you frown?" he gently urged.  
  
"I'm thinking of resigning my commission," she told him honestly.  
  
"Woah! That's a bit extreme!" he exclaimed. "Why?"  
  
"Because of everything I told you on Saturday. I really do want to do whatever it takes to be happy. If I resign, we don't ever have to worry about chain of command again. Even if I were to get my own team, which isn't going to be anytime soon by the way, we still would have to go off-world together at some point and you would be the commanding officer. Besides, I can't see me continually putting my life at risk if I ever do have children. And I can't even try to get pregnant if I'm on a field team, as I would be required to be on birth control," she explained, on a roll now and starting to feel more and more like this was a good idea.   
  
"Still, all of that is in the future. Don't you think you need to take this slowly? If the time comes when we want to try to have kids, then you could possibly go that route. In the meantime, we just need to come up with a way for us to go out on a date so we can work our way up to that point," Jack recommended.   
  
Sam thought for a moment and then shocked him by blurting out, "Kiss me."  
  
"What?" Jack asked, sure he must have heard her wrong.  
  
"The security camera doesn't reach this spot and nobody up above can see us, so kiss me," she insisted.   
  
Before he could protest she had leaned in and brushed her lips against his. With a groan he admitted defeat and crushed her to him as he claimed her lips. It was several long minutes that seemed to last an eternity before they parted, both looking slightly stunned and breathing hard. Sam recovered first, and started to grin. Before long her smile had grown to the point where she had to bury her face in Jack's chest for a minute to keep from shouting for joy. When she looked up, it was to find a similar smile on his face.   
  
"So what did that just prove?" he asked with a chuckle.   
  
"There is no way we are taking this slow," Sam concluded.  
  
"I still don't think you should resign. If anything I'll retire. I'm not that far off from having to anyway," he assured her.  
  
"Yes you are. Besides if you retire, six months or a year from now if I want to resign we will both be unemployed," she pointed out.  
  
"Six months?" he queried, his smile growing.   
  
"I thought I just proved things were going to move fast?" she teased.  
  
"I'm, just worried you'll regret it if you do, Sam. I couldn't live with myself if you gave up too much to be with me," he acknowledged.   
  
Sam sobered at his admission. "I don't have a crystal ball. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow let alone in ten years. I *do* know that I'll regret it if I don't give us a chance."  
  
"So let's hedge our bets. You go ahead and do what you think is best and I will too. Maybe Hammond will decide he needs a third option and will offer us a compromise," he suggested.   
  
"And maybe we will both be out on the street," Sam pointed out.  
  
"Not going to happen, I guarantee it," Jack assured her.   
  
They sat quietly for a few minutes, and then after a quick parting kiss, they both headed out of the mountain and to their respective homes. Neither of them noticed the person that had been hovering out in the hallway outside the open blast doors, listening to every word.   
  
  
  
  
  
General George Hammond had the worst headache he could ever recall. In the space of one hour each of the four members of SG1 had come to him and informed him of their intentions to retire or resign. Out of concern that they were under the control of some sort of alien manipulation he had ordered them all down to the infirmary. Dr. Fraiser had found nothing suspicious, so now he was waiting for them to appear in the briefing room and explain themselves. In the meantime he'd had a rather frustrating conversation with the President, who had told him in no uncertain terms that he was to deny all requests. He could do that where the two ASAF officers were concerned. He wasn't sure he had any power over the civilian and alien members of the team. He hoped he could get to the bottom of this before he was due to report back to the Commander in Chief.   
  
As the four filed into the room he noted that both Carter and O'Neill seemed to be arguing with Teal'c and Daniel. He only heard the very last comment from Dr. Jackson before they all silently took a seat.   
  
"And I'm telling you two, you're going to need our help on this for leverage!" the man was arguing.   
  
Hammond quickly took charge of the four stressed looking team members. "Which one of you wants to tell me what the hell is going on?" he demanded. When none of them offered any immediate comment he continued. "Teal'c let's start with you. Why do you want to leave the SGC?"   
  
"I do not want to leave, General Hammond. I am simply wagering on the bushes," the Jaffa replied.  
  
"Hedging our bet, T," the Colonel clarified to Hammond's relief.  
  
"What do you mean?" Hammond queried.   
  
"Is it not true that you have the authority to deny both O'Neill and Major Carter their requests?" Teal'c inquired.  
  
"Yes, and I have orders to do just that from the President himself," Hammond confirmed.  
  
"But you can't keep Teal'c and I against our will," Daniel suggested.   
  
"No I don't suppose I can," Hammond agreed wearily.  
  
"So, either you resolve their requests, or you loose both of us," Daniel informed him.  
  
"Daniel, you don't need to do this," Sam insisted.  
  
"Sam, we *are* doing this. We want you to be happy, and we refuse to let this go on anymore," Daniel assured her.   
  
"Are you telling me this is because Major Carter isn't getting her own command?" Hammond suddenly deduced.   
  
"No, Sir!" Sam denied vehemently.  
  
"Than what is all of this about, Major? What is making you so unhappy that you all would resort to this nonsense?" Hammond questioned.  
  
"That would be me, Sir," Jack confessed.  
  
"That's not true," Sam protested.   
  
"Major, Colonel, whatever the problem is between the two of you, I suggest you work it out. I am not breaking up my top team over some squabble," Hammond maintained.  
  
"And we can't resolve it without breaking up the team, so we have a problem," Jack replied.  
  
"We can if you let me resign my commission," Sam insisted.  
  
"Ok, enough!" Hammond demanded. "I'm ordering you to tell me what is behind all of this."  
  
There was a sudden deafening silence. General Hammond looked around to see Teal'c and Dr. Jackson staring at O'Neill, and O'Neill looking at the Major as if to ask permission to speak. Major Carter did something he'd never seen her do before. She blushed. Eventually she nodded her permission, and O'Neill cleared his throat.   
  
"The Major and I have decided we want to explore a relationship, Sir," Jack stated clearly, looking his CO in the eyes daring him to deny them their request now.   
  
Hammond was speechless. How had he gotten so far out of the loop? Just a month ago he'd given the Major permission to brief that detective on the Stargate. What had he missed in the interim? He looked at the two now and realized that it really had been inevitable. They'd just gotten so good at hiding their feelings that he had become complacent about their situation, but it was bound to cause a problem in one way or another eventually. Truth be told, he was glad it was this, and not that they could no longer work together because one of them had moved on hurting the other in the process. They both deserved some happiness.  
  
He rubbed his temple to ease the headache and sighed. "Give me a few hours to think this over and come up with the best solution. You are all dismissed," he commanded. "Oh, and can I assume that if this is resolved to everyone's satisfaction I can tear up all of these requests?"  
  
He received three simultaneous "Yes Sir's", and waited for Major Carter to chime in.   
  
"I want to reserve the right to still resign my commission," she quietly informed him.   
  
"I'm going to do everything in my power to keep that from happening, Major," he assured her, and headed into his office to pick up the red phone.  
  
  
  
At first the President and Joint Chiefs were unsympathetic. It wasn't until Hammond assured them that one way or another he was going to loose a member of SG1 that they sat down and started to talk seriously about a resolution that would keep as much of the status quo as possible. None of them felt comfortable with allowing a breakdown at the top of their frontline defense against the Goa'uld at a time when Anubis was such a threat.   
  
In the end it turned out to be quite simple, and it was all due to a suggestion made by one of the Joint Chief's. Hammond simply transferred Major Carter to a position directly under his command with the understanding that she would go off-world with SG teams as her expertise was needed. She would be under the command of the CO of the particular SG team for only the length of the mission, and as long as no fraternization occurred during the course of the mission, no regs would be broken. The other Chiefs and the President agreed to this arrangement and gave Hammond the responsibility of monitoring the situation to make sure it was working.   
  
And it did work. Of course it wasn't a coincidence that SG1 was the team that needed her the most. And she and Jack were so grateful that they bent over backwards to ensure that there were no problems. So much so that Teal'c and Daniel finally pulled them aside and told them to lighten up. Neither of them had any problems with the two officers occasionally joking and flirting. They had been doing it for almost seven years, and it was unnatural for them to stop. Soon, when Sam accompanied them, it was as if nothing had changed.  
  
It had though. True to Sam's prediction their relationship had moved quickly. It doesn't take long for two people who already respect and care for each to fall deeply in love, especially when the spark of attraction has been smoldering for as long as theirs had. Before either of them realized what was happening they were living together. It dawned on Sam one Saturday three months later when she was folding clothes at Jack's and suddenly couldn't remember the last time she'd used the washing machine at her house. She'd actually dropped the socks she was sorting and had done a quick tour of the house. When Jack came home he found her sitting and staring at the bookshelves. He was concerned by the shocked look in her eyes.  
  
"Sam, what's the matter?" he demanded sitting down next to her.   
  
She turned slowly towards him and announced, "We live together!"  
  
He hadn't actually thought about it, but looked over the bookcase she had been staring at to see their books intermingled. Then he looked at the pile of socks she had been sorting. His thoughts winged to the bedroom closet and how his clothes now only took up about a third of the space there, and he started to grin.  
  
"You're right we do," he agreed. "Does that bother you?" he asked now slightly worried.  
  
"No, I was just surprised. It kind of snuck up on me," she admitted. "What about you?"  
  
He only paused a moment. "This place finally feels like a home," he confessed, "and I can honestly say that I'm truly happy," he added remembering their conversation from all those months ago.  
  
Sam gave him one of her incredible smiles. "Me too. Happier than I can remember being in a long time."  
  
Then almost afraid to push the issue he tentatively suggested, "Maybe we should make it official."  
  
"Being happy?" she asked.   
  
"Yeah, and living together. The whole package," he replied.  
  
"What are you suggesting?" she asked eyes wide.  
  
"I'm suggesting we get married. I love you Sam. Will you marry me?" he proposed.   
  
He took the fact that she flung herself at him knocking the laundry to the floor as a 'Yes'.   
  
  
  
The end 


End file.
